Posted on 04/01/2014 7:22:48 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
A lot of Internet ink has been spilled over how lazy and entitled Millennials are, but when it comes to paying for a college education, work ethic isn't the limiting factor. The economic cards are stacked such that today’s average college student, without support from financial aid and family resources, would need to complete 48 hours of minimum-wage work a week to pay for his courses—a feat that would require superhuman endurance, or maybe a time machine.
To take a close look at the tuition history of almost any institution of higher education in America is to confront an unfair reality: Each year’s crop of college seniors paid a little bit more than the class that graduated before. The tuition crunch never fails to provide new fodder for ongoing analysis of the myths and realities of The American Dream. Last week, a graduate student named Randy Olson listened to his grandfather extol the virtues of putting oneself through college without family support. But paying for college without family support is a totally different proposition these days, Olson thought. It may have been feasible 30 years ago, or even 15 years ago, but it's much harder now.
He later found some validation for these sentiments on Reddit, where one user had started a thread about the increasing cost per course at Michigan State University.
MSU calculates tuition by the "credit hour," the term for the number of hours spent in a classroom per week. By this metric, which is used at many U.S. colleges and universities, a course that's worth three credit hours is a course that meets for three hours each week during the semester. If the semester is 15 weeks long, that adds up to 45 total hours of a student's time.
(Excerpt) Read more at theatlantic.com ...
I must have missed the law that stated that college students were forced to work for minimum wage.
One would think that an energetic, smart person could do better than the absolute minimum.
There is also that whole, working before you go to college thing.
GI Bill, Hard Work U, correspondence, community college, etc.
I worked my way through college driving cabs and as a part time bouncer. Did just fine ... of course that was back in the 60’s, don’t know if I could do it today.
I worked my way through college, at least as an undergrad. I had an athletic scholar ship and a job running the university’s switchboard in the evenings until 10:00.
I also got training table and the athletic department would let you borrow your text books. I had enough money left over that I bought an old car from Billy Graham. Not that Billy Graham, this one was a football player.
Now grad school was way worse. I had a scholarship but ended up selling a good part of my belongings including around a hundred guns.
It is simply not possible now to work one's way through college, and all the "I walked to school uphill both ways" stories won't change that. But I don't blame the young people, I blame the professors and administrators of the tax-supported institutions that rip these young people off.
If I may steal a page from the Kenyan’s playbook, they could dump the “smart” phone and cable TV. Maybe miss a view “spring break” trips and parties and I think it can still be done. I worked my way to a college degree and never worked a “minimum wage” job doing it.
....also ROTC scholarships, simultaneous enrollment in the National Guard, and, one that I did not know about until too late and regard as the coolest one of all, the “degree completion program”.
Funny, I’m working my way through college right now. My company reimburses my tuition.
This can be directly attributable to shoveling student loans to people who were totally unqualified to go to college.
The low-information types borrowed whatever the college said they needed. Since the money came so easily, colleges could jack up rates and students would just borrow more.
Think of the tens of thousands of Liberal college professors teaching meaningless courses whose paychecks came from those exploited students.
The college tuition bubble must burst. When it does, only people who are qualified to go to college will go, and they won't be paying for professors teaching meaningless courses.
It's going to be sweet to see professors of vagina dialogue studies forced to find real jobs.
Big part of the problem is that tuition has been inflated to suck up every available federal dollar. I also drove cab, worked a day job and earned my MBA through night school at a well respected brick and mortar state university. Tuition was $135 per credit hour then. Not cheap by the standards of the 1980s, but do the math and try to find anything comparable today.
It's not fair to stupid students that you aren't stupid and can get a job that reimburses you for your tuition costs.
I worked PT in a warehouse and as a bread baker in a bakery. I lived in a slum and got day old bread. It sucked but I managed.
He became a mechanical engineer. We went to Saudi Arabia and made a PILE of money. His profession paid off in SPADES.
It just took a few years to pay off his school debts. And yes, he also worked while he went to school.
One year he worked at and lived at a veterinarians hospital and took care of the sick animals at night and on the weekends.
There was also a HUGE tom cat named OMAR who ruled the place sitting placidly on the counter. NO ONE messed with Omar. Every once in a while some dog would go after him and Omar would SWIPE the dog with a mighty THWACK. Then the vet had to sew up the dog.
True story: There was this one HUGE sweet Doberman named "Roger" who was there recuperating. My husband was to give him his PILL at a prescribed time. Well, Roger wouldn't cooperate and wrestled with my husband, a big, strong guy ... for 10 minutes.
Finally, my husband held out the pill and said: "Come on Roger, take your pill. Roger immediately lapped up the pill and swallowed it. He had just WANTED TO PLAY a bit. :o)
A young, smart college person could make a lot than minimum wage at 40 hours a week waiting tables in a nice or concept restaurant part time.
The only college course anyone should spend tens of thousands on is HOW TO SPEAK A FOREIGN LANGUAGE.
Graduates then may have a chance a to get a job.
At Taco Bell.
In state at the local community state college is about $4000 per year, straight tuition. With books let’s call it $5000.
If a person makes $10/hr, and works full time in the summer, they can pay for that, live with a roomate, and eat.
It ain’t Ivy League, and it ain’t a sweet dorm, but its a degree.
The law of supply and demand, especially for someone with no experience and out of high school, they would be lucky to even get a job in the first place, much less just minimum wage. Heck, starting out myself, many decades ago, all I was getting was minimum wage (can you believe that was $1.25/hr).
I worked at a gas station, and a theater and a grocery store ... various times starting off, so I know how it is.
I’m trying to help a relative get a job right now and they basically can’t get one (over a period of a year), and if you do manage to ge to one, it’s definitely no more than minimum wage.
Another factor is that employers do NOT want to accommodate any kind of school schedule. The employer wants you to work WHENEVER they determine they need you, and they do NOT want to hear about this time off or that day off. You try that with employers and you’re fired and they get someone else!
And ... right now ... as a real old fogey ... if I were to get some kind of job, all I would be getting is minimum wage, because of my limitations. They’re different than the limitations that youngsters have, but they’re there.
You have to keep in mind that we’re talking “averages” here - in other words the BULK of the population group we’re talking about and not a 1% or 2% or 3% that may be able to “score big” and get an accommodating employer and even one that will pay more than minimum wage - all while taking classes all mixed in through the day and week.
I remember my college days and it was difficult enough even “finding a job” at all (and I definitely wanted one). And then if you got one - well, good luck even getting enough hours.
What you’re saying will work for a very few - but I’ll guarantee you it won’t work for the bulk of that group.
And that’s just the way it is. You better have all that money up front, or you better get it from your parents or you better get it from some other source. Any work you do is going to be minimum wage and you’re not going to get all the hours you need.
College would be far cheaper if student lomas were a little harder to get.
So What? That 45 hours out of 15 weeks is 1.785% of the possible 2,520 hours.
If you took 5 classes you'd spend 8.928% of that time in class. Isn't going to class why you decided on college?
Add a full 8 hours a day sleeping and you end up with an average of 13.7 hours of free time each day in a 15 week period.
Sounds like more push for government to pay for everything.
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